Capablanca Chess - Setup of The Pieces

Setup of The Pieces

Capablanca proposed two opening setups for Capablanca Chess. In one opening setup, he proposed that the archbishop be placed between the bishop and the queen and that the chancellor be placed between the king and the king's bishop. This setup has the flaw that it leaves the pawn in front of the king's bishop undefended, allowing white to threaten mate on the first move.

He subsequently revised the opening setup so that the archbishop was between the queen's knight and bishop, and the chancellor was between the king's knight and bishop. He also experimented with 10×10 board sizes, where the pawns could move up to three squares on the initial move.

In his book, The Adventure of Chess, Edward Lasker writes (p. 39):

...I played many test games with Capablanca, and they rarely lasted more than twenty or twenty-five moves. We tried boards of 10×10 squares and 10×8 squares, and we concluded that the latter was preferable because hand-to-hand fights start earlier on it.

Lasker was one of the few supporters. Hungarian grandmaster Géza Maróczy also played some games with Capablanca (who got the better of him). One of the few rational critics, British champion William Winter, thought that there were too many strong pieces, making the minor pieces less relevant.

The names for new pieces, Archbishop and Chancellor, were introduced by Capablanca himself. These names are still used in most modern variants of Capablanca Chess.